COR WAS HERE

COR WAS HERE is a special exhibition devoted to the photographer Cor Jaring, curated by the long-time admirer and photographer Sander Troelstra, who is generations younger. Cor Jaring worked his way up from dockworker to internationally-famed photographer, and photographed life as an adventure, with his own personality as a prime example. The exhibition includes a great deal of hitherto undiscovered work from his private archive, including pictures of his journey to Japan, being shown in Huis Marseille for the first time ever.

Cor Jaring (1936–2013) was a remarkable character who began working as a professional photographer in the 1950s. He came from humble origins and had started out as a dockworker. Between his working hours he started to photograph the marginal areas in which he moved, with friends, fellow dockers, gaugers and ironworkers as his subjects. He also used his kiekkassie, or ‘snapbox’, as he called his camera, to record mass redundancies and the cold-hearted automation of harbour work. Cor was one of those working men, and made his name as a photographer only later.